July 6, 2012

The associations, entities, groups and
NGOs[1] co-signing the present report
carried out from 17
February 2012 until 7 April 2012 a campaign against the unacceptable
situation of denial of access to the asylum system in Greece,
focusing on the Attica area, where the
vast majority of asylum seekers try to apply for international protection.
The longstanding practice followed by the Asylum Department of the Attica
Aliens Directorate, the competent authority to receive, register and
examine asylum applications in Attica, is to allow submission of a small
number of asylum applications and only in the early hours of every
Saturday morning.

Members
of the above-mentioned groups and organizations have been protesting and
monitoring at the building of the Attica Aliens Directorate (Petrou Ralli
Street) from Friday evening to Saturday morning on 17-2-2012 and 6-4-2012,
and from 5:00 a.m. to 7 a.m. on 25-2-2012, 3-3-2012, 10-3-2012, 17-3-2012,
24-3-2012 and 31-3-2012.

These
two months of systematic presence and monitoring have resulted in
important findings[2]
based on personal witnessing and testimonies, most of which have been
recorded in audiovisual materials[3]
illustrating the deplorable situation regarding the access to the asylum
procedure in the Attica area. NGOs,
groups and reporters have had the opportunity to witness the whole process
emanated by the Greek police while “selecting” asylum
seekers, waiting under appalling conditions, in order to have their application
registered. A representative of the UNHCR Office in Greece was also present in the
morning of 10-3-2012[4].

The
current report consolidates the findings of the monitoring process from 16-2-2012 to 7-4-2012, presenting
also information about the access to the asylum procedure all over Greece
and denouncing the violations of international, EU and national law by the
Greek authorities with respect to this issue.

A. Observations and
findings of the monitoring process

Asylum
seekers are prohibited from waiting outside the entrance of the Attica
Aliens Directorate. They are confined to a side street in the proximity of
the building. Depending on the weather conditions a group of ca. 80-200
migrants, mostly men but also some women and minors coming from Africa and
Asia, are waiting in line along the street-side. On the night of Friday 17 February 2012 they were exposed to severe weather conditions,
huddled up the one next to the other, shivering from cold and visibly
exhausted. It is noteworthy that during that specific Friday night,
the outside temperature was almost as low as 0 C. The migrants who were
waiting there informed us that around 50 persons had left earlier, around 18:00, because they could no
longer endure the chilling cold.

The majority of asylum seekers
who wait in line to submit their application start gathering at the
sidestreet in the proximity of the Attica Aliens Directorate already from
Thursday morning (some of them even from Wednesday), hoping to secure one
of the front places in the line and to increase their chance of having
their application registered. The police use various practices to disperse
the crowd and discourage them from forming waiting lines earlier than
Friday evening. In particular, as reported to the participants of the
campaign, between Thursday evening and Friday morning the police often
chase and push the asylum seekers away, even with the use of force
(globs). Members of the asylum campaign witnessed the police practice of
dismantling the crowd on Thursday 15-3-2012. As a result, many applicants get discouraged and give up their
effort to have their application registered. This was obvious in the
morning of Saturday
17-3-2012, when we observed that those still waiting in the
line were almost half of those waiting on Thursday night. We were also
reported that in the evening of Thursday, 1 March 2012 and Thursday, 5 April, the
police resorted to the use of chemicals in order to disperse the asylum
seekers who had already gathered.

Those
waiting in the line - some of them for three days - have no access to
toilet, water or food. Asylum
seekers cannot move and leave their position because they will lose their
place in the queue. The side street where the crowd of asylum seekers is
lining is very poorly lit, dirty, with no sanitary facilities, while
litter piles between asylum applicants are getting bigger from week to
week[5].

Asylum applicants presenting themselves at
Attica Aliens Directorate do not necessarily reside
in the Attica region, but they may also come
from other Greek cities, since, as reported, local police authorities
refuse to register asylum applications as they ought to. During our
presence in Petrou Ralli we interviewed Syrian and Afghan asylum seekers
from Thessaloniki, Patra, Igoumenitsa and Chania, who reported to us that they
had come to Attica Aliens Directorate several times in order to apply for
asylum.

9.Around 6:00 am on 17-2-2012/25-2-2012/3-3-2012 and 10-3-2012 the police
officers “chose” the first 20 applicants waiting in line. On 17-3-2012 they selected the
first 17 applicants, on 24-3-2012
and 7-4-2012 they
didn’t allow the entrance to the building of Police Directorate to any
applicant at all (see par. 16 &
17), while on 31-3-2012
the police made the selection of ca. 30-40 applicants earlier than usual, at 4:00 am. It has to be noted that until recently - as
it has been reported to us but also during previous monitoring activities[6]
- the police used to choose randomly 20 claims from the queue based on unclear
criteria.

On the days that the monitoring took place
(except for the days of 24-3-2012 and 7-4-2012, see par. 16 & 17), once the “selection” was over, the
police officers shouted in Greek at the exhausted and disappointed asylum
seekers remaining outside the process the phrase: “Go away now, next
week”, while clapping their hands rhythmically and pushing back those who
were left behind. No explanation or response was provided by the
authorities to the remaining asylum seekers, who have no guarantee for
their future, facing the possibility to get arrested. No interpreter was
present in this process and no information was provided orally or in
writing regarding the process of access to asylum.

The
majority of the asylum seekers waiting informed us that they had already
attempted unsuccessfully to submit their application under the same
deplorable conditions from 5 to 10 times.
Many asylum seekers told us that they had been coming every week
for a whole year or even more.

On 3-3-2012 a group of
women asylum seekers reported to us that they had been waiting
since Thursday and had been among the 20 first in the
line, but they had lost their place after the police operation to disperse
the crowd at that night took place. Out of the approximately 40 women who
came in the course of these months of monitoring to submit an application,
only a very small number succeeded. It is of particular concern the more
vulnerable situation of women asylum seekers, who wait in the line under
these deplorable conditions, taking into account sanitary
considerations, cultural and gender issues, the fact that they have to
wait among a crowd of unknown men and the fear and risk of being harassed.

During our monitoring, we noticed
approximately 10 unaccompanied minors (UAM). Some of them were waiting 2
days and nights in a row, among adults, exposed to bad weather conditions.
On 18 February three unaccompanied minors of Afghan origin waiting in the
queue were identified by the participants in the campaign. The minors were
indicated by the participants in the campaign to the officer in charge as
UAM entitled to immediate measures of protection and care. As the officer
took the children with him, we assumed that he intended to follow the
process set by law and to take the necessary measures to ensure their access
to the asylum procedure and their protection. However, the participants of
the campaign followed-up the case and were informed by the minors[7]
that they were dismissed by the police officer, without having their
applications registered, without any further guidance and/or measure taken
to ensure their protection (i.e. inform the Prosecutor for minors, refer
to appropriate accommodation facility for minors etc).

It
has to be noted that on 10-3-2012,
when the representative of UNHCR Office in Greece was present, three
unaccompanied minors, were picked up by the authorities and were registered
as asylum applicants.

On Saturday morning 31-3-2012 police
authorities completed the “selection” procedure of asylum applicants two
hours earlier than usual (at around 4 a.m.) confirming once more that there is
no rule “regulating” this process (see
par. 16 & 17).

On Saturday
morning 24 March 2012 police authorities refused to register any asylum
applications whatsoever; around 6:00 am, when the police authorities started
the process of singling out the first 20 from the line, asylum seekers who
were waiting behind – some of them for more than two days and nights –
started complaining and gathering in the front. As a result of this
reaction, the line was dispersed and tension prevailed. Police officers
left the applicants and returned inside the building of the Aliens
Directorate, while asylum seekers gathered outside the gate of the
building. After some time, two persons – apparently working as
interpreters at the Asylum Department – appeared, stood inside the yard
and started addressing the crowd in Arabic and Urdu. They told the asylum
seekers that no asylum application would be registered that day following
the incident which had taken place. No police officer from the Asylum
Department was present at that time. During the incident one Bangladeshi
national lost senses due to overcrowding, while an
Afghan asylum seeker was allegedly
stubbed by another asylum applicant. Injured asylum applicants were
transferred to the hospital following the initiative of the present
members of the campaign. Police authorities didn’t take any preventive or
protective measures to deter these incidents from taking place[8]. The asylum applicants, deprived of any
logical and legal way to access the asylum procedure, remain in despair,
facing further discrimination based on physical characteristics, gender,
age and ethnic origin.

On Friday
6-4-2012,
members of the participating groups were monitoring the process from 23:00 till 7:30 in the morning of Saturday 7-4-2012. At the time we
reached the place, a queue of about 200 persons had already been formed.
Even at that time, there was high tension between a group of applicants of
African origin and a group of applicants of mostly Asian origin. In
particular, a group of African men were standing next to the first places
of the line, filled mainly by African asylum seekers, and were arguing
with other asylum seekers (Syrians, Afghans, Iranians, Bangladeshi,
Pakistanis, Sudanese and Somalis). The reason of the tension, as witnessed
by and reported to us, was complains by asylum seekers that the first
places of the queue had been filled by illegitimate means and, in
particular, by the use of force by a group of African men who reserved
them for applicants having allegedly made a deal with them. It has to be
mentioned that these complaints have been reported by asylum seekers to
members of the participating groups during the whole period of our
monitoring activity. However, it was the first time that we observed a
group of men of African origin who were not waiting in the line to apply
for asylum arguing with other applicants, threatening and shouting at them
to go back to the end of the queue. It is also worth mentioning that many
asylum seekers reported to us that they had been waiting since Thursday
and that, apart from being dispersed by the police on several occasions,
they were also pushed back by force by a group of African men once the
queue was finally formed. At around 6:00
am on Saturday
7-4-2012, and as tension was high between a group of African
men standing next to the line and a group of applicants of various
origins, police cars appeared in order to start the selection procedure.
However, while police officers were counting the first applicants of the
queue, the tension, as described above, heightened and turned into clashes
with a group of African men attacking applicants mainly of Asian origin,
who were complaining about the process. Police officers stopped
immediately the process of selection and entered the police cars, while
the attacks became extremely violent with African men using wooden and
plastic sticks against other asylum applicants, focusing mainly on
Bangladeshi applicants. Police officers left the scene and the situation
became very brutal and out of control. For at least 15 minutes members of
our group, blocked on this “battlefield”, without being able to do
anything to protect anybody and at risk of being hurt as well, witnessed
extremely violent attacks. After a while, when most of the people had left
the place, we managed to approach the gate of the Attica Aliens
Directorate, where most of the remaining applicants had gathered. In the
meanwhile, we observed that attacks were still taking place in the nearby
streets, where the chase apparently was still going on. Outside the
building of the Attica Aliens Directorate, many applicants were denouncing
that they had been severely beaten, while three of them were obviously
seriously injured. Two of them, of Afghan origin, were lying on the ground
with their heads smashed and bleeding, while the third, of Bangladeshi
origin, collapsed after reaching the front gate. It has to be noted that
apart from the guards who were standing inside the gate of the Aliens
Directorate no other police officer appeared until the time of our
departure (7:30 am). The ambulance came and transferred the injured to the
hospital, while until we left nobody from the Aliens Directorate
intervened or provided any information to the applicants gathered outside the
gate. Thus, many question marks are raised about the role of the police
which didn’t take any preventive measures to secure the integrity of the
asylum seekers and allowed the climax of the violence, which caused many
injured, while witnessing the incident and leaving without doing anything.

Considering the above, there is no doubt that
the irrational practice of the authorities of restricting the access to
the asylum procedure only to a small number of applicants and only once a
week, in a process that takes place before dawn, leaves room for the
appearance of arbitrariness and exploitation. This practice undoubtedly
leads to situations of high tension and violence that have already cost
the physical integrity of many applicants who have been severely injured
during this process and it is a matter of time to result again in the loss
of human lives.

Based
on our presence and monitoring at Aliens Directorate for two months and
our interviews with the asylum seekers who were waiting to apply, we
concluded the following :

Access
to the asylum procedure is almost impossible in Attica.
By no means can qualify as “access to the asylum procedure” the practice
of exposing a human being to the ordeal of waiting at the side of a street
for 2 to 3 days and nights in a row, under deplorable conditions, so that
he/she may have a small chance of having his/her claim registered.

The
way the police authorities treat asylum seekers and, in particular, the
practice of preventing them even from the physical approach and access to
the entrance of the building of the Aliens Directorate, the conditions
under which they have to wait for days, exposed to any weather conditions
and without access to toilet, water and food, the arbitrary manner in
which asylum claims are then singled out and registered, the lack of any
guidance and information by the authorities, in combination with the way
the asylum seekers excluded from the selection are being chased by the
police in order to go away, constitute a violation of their human dignity and highlights once again the
treatment that the competent authorities have in store for
"foreigners".

The
competent authorities take no measures to ease the physical and mental
exhaustion of the asylum seekers, who are subjected to inhuman and degrading
torment in order to apply. Instead they follow specific practices, such as dispersing the queue of asylum
seekers, intimidating them and chasing them way, in order to discourage them from returning and trying to submit
their asylum application.

This
irrational practice established by the authorities, i.e. restricting the
access to the asylum procedure only to a small number of applicants and
only once a week, in a process that takes place before dawn, leaves room for the appearance of
arbitrariness, violence and exploitation, towards which the police remain
indifferent contrary to their role and in breach of their obligations.
This practice undoubtedly leads to situations of high tension and violence
that have already cost the physical integrity of many applicants who have
been severely injured during this process and it is a matter of time to
result again in the loss of human lives, as the police abstain from taking
any preventive measures to secure the asylum seekers’ integrity.

Under the above-mentioned conditions,
vulnerable groups (women, minors etc.) are exposed to extra risks and are
finally subjected to additional hardship, taking into consideration their
particular situation and needs. In particular, with respect to the UAM it
should be stressed that the authorities refrain from their obligations,
which are clearly set by law, and take no measures whatsoever to identify
the minors among the asylum seekers waiting in the queue and to ensure
their protection and their access to the asylum procedure, “leaving them
alone to survive”[9].

Barring
access to the asylum procedure results in putting at risk the life and
freedom of those seeking international protection, deprives them of their
rights and devalues their dignity. They may be arrested, detained,
deported or ‘refouled’ at any moment and they are excluded from exercising
their rights. In the end, they remain hidden, hunted and held
hostage to this wider "discouragement" policy.

26.The procedure under which asylum
applications are being registered and examined at first instance still remains
within the mandate of the police authorities, contrary to the new legal
framework establishing a new Asylum Service. According to the new law, asylum
ceases to fall within the sphere of competence of the police. However, the new
Asylum Service is still on the paper although it should have been functioning
since January 2012. The competence of the police over asylum actually
constitutes one of the systemic factors of the failure to establish a fair and
efficient asylum procedure in Greece.

[2] “Joint press release about the
protest on 17 and 18/02/2012
on access to the asylum procedure in Greece” (24/02/2012) and “Joint press release
about the one month at Petrou Ralli” (15/03/2012), athttp://asylum-campaign.blogspot.com